First Love

Hannah Kensington was almost fifteen years old when she met Ryan Matthews across a tiny gas station booth on Reisterstown Road. He was nineteen, tall, blue-eyed, long-haired, and impossible not to notice. From the moment he smiled, something in her young heart changed.

What followed was a summer of first love, Ocean City bike rides, boardwalk memories, music, nicknames, and moments that made Hannah feel seen in a way she never had before.

But Ryan never said the words she longed to hear.

As distance, silence, and uncertainty began to settle between them, Hannah found herself asking the question that would follow her for years:

What did she really mean to him?

Then came Hammerjacks.

A song dedicated to someone else.

A heartbreak she never forgot.

And before Hannah could understand what Ryan truly felt, everything changed — a devastating accident, a hospital bed, and a letter from California that would become the beginning of the next chapter.

The Summer I Met Him is Book One in First Love: A Memoir, a heartfelt series about first love, missed timing, memory, heartbreak, and the lasting power of the person we never quite forget.